Friday News Roundup: Female vets, aging, and urban plunges

written by naehblog

March 19, 2010

This was the week the media focused on female veterans experiencing homelessness, an issue we’ve had our eye on for some time. We’re encouraged by examples of assistance programs that serve women who have served, like Malachi House in VA, US Vets in CA and the Minnesota Assistance Council for Veterans.

Thanks to all who called Congress this week to ask for an increase in McKinney-Vento funding! Stay tuned to this blog to stay involved in this campaign.

Over at the National Housing Center’s Open House blog, Alayna Waldrum of the U.S. Association for Homes and Services for the Aging guest blogged in defense of the Section 202 capital advance development program that was cut in Obama’s FY2011 budget proposal. We’re also thinking about how to house the aging population, and we’ll be coming out with a publication in the coming weeks.

Diane Nilan was loud and clear on Change.org this week when she echoed an argument we’ve been making as well: If the HPRP program is going to work, assistance providers need more money. She writes

Although the $1.5 billion in federal stimulus funds called Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program, should help some renters stay in their apartments and move some families from homeless situations back into housing, it’s too little money and distribution networks need to be ramped up. The capacity to distribute funds in many places is stymied by previous staffing cuts. Lest Congress think the slow funneling reflects lack of need, think again.